See those wood floors? Those are going to be our wood floors! I can’t wait to share all the beautiful home photos, but I’m going to save that for a later post. Let me back up a minute and tackle the subject I really want to talk about today: GOALS.

Even before Hubs and I got married, we both had agreed that instead of moving into a new apartment or rental house that would accommodate both of us, our stuff, and our lives, we were willing to stick it out in his super cheap, quite small bachelor pad until we could build up a 20% down payment on a house. He carved out some space for me in the closet, packed in the apartment with some of my more precious furniture items, and we shoved the excess, including almost all of our wedding presents, into a storage unit temporarily, since we had no realistic idea what our next living situation would look like.

In the interest of transparency – and so I never forget where we started – I’ve added some photos of the tiny apartment here. And before you tell me this place isn’t very minimalist or pretty, I know. This place is 100% utilitarian…just us trying to make things work until we can move on and start our life in a house.

View from the front door

Tiny house people, I salute you. I love my minimalist lifestyle, but it has only been 8 months of small apartment living, and my relationship with this apartment has been a real struggle. There were days when I wanted to literally sell everything and just start over with nothing. There were days wanted to have a meltdown because there was just not enough available counter space in the kitchen. There were days where I felt guilty about always going to our friends’ houses to do game nights and other gatherings because having a total of 4 or more people would run the risk of throwing someone into a fit of claustrophobia.

See that desk to the left? That’s my “office.”

There were days where I struggled HARD to find contentment, trying to reconcile our current living situation with the goal and dream I knew Hubs and I shared of creating a home together in a space that we own.

But through all of it, we were united in our goal of living life small in the short term, saving as much as possible, so we would be better equipped to move on to home ownership and the life we aspired to live in the long term.

We planned and carefully budgeted for big purchases, and seriously cut back on our spending.

We encouraged each other in the small milestones, with high fives every time we made a transfer to savings or managed to get by with a particularly low grocery bill.

I started working from home to save money on gas and remove my need to rent an office.

We listened to a lot of Dave Ramsey podcasts to stay motivated with stories of others who are working on a major financial goal.

I got so determined in my saving that last month, despite not having had a haircut in almost 6 months, I cut my own hair because I refused to go over budget.

Tiny kitchen – good for efficiency, not so good for baking dozens and dozens of cookies.

So what I’d really like to tell you is goals are hard. Whether you’re raising kids, paying off debt, just trying to get through to the next semester, working toward a promotion, developing a relationship, promoting a cause you’re passionate about, etc., it’s hard work. It can really wear on you. It can make you feel crazy.

But in the end, without goals, what are we really doing? I’m going to challenge you today to revisit one thing you want in life and to intentionally take one more step toward achieving that thing. Then one more. And one more. The time will pass anyway, why not spend it intentionally pursing the life you want?

What is a goal you’re working on or want to start right now? I’d love to hear what’s up and offer some encouragement!

Just a quick heads up for next week, the Summer 10 x 10 is coming up, with the initial item reveal this Friday and the challenge officially starting on Monday, July 11th. Despite the moving craziness, I’m going to be joining in! My compromise this time is that I won’t be writing about each outfit like I did in my Spring 10 x 10. I’ll do my regular Tuesday post, but if you want real time info on what I picked for the challenge and what my outfits are, be sure to follow me on Instagram!

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3 thoughts on “Words to Live By: Goals”

Thank you for an encouraging post! It is so good to hear about the effort you’re taking, and though it may be hard it isn’t out of reach. And if you can do it I can, right?
Recently I have been working on so many things it seems, that it’s hard to put a finger on it. Getting smarter with money, better at my job, running (daily, soon…hopefully!), and finishing projects I’ve started at home. Plus many more things, but there’s the lot of it!

Wow, that’s a lot going on! But it’s true, you can do it! I tend to find I’m more successful when I throw most my efforts behind one goal at a time. The true end goal is for me to come up with a system for maintenance that works for me. Once I’m happy and see that system is working, I move on to another goal. Life will inevitably change, so I might have to revisit a system eventually.

But in the end, it’s completely worth it! You’ll feel so good when you start seeing the fruits of your efforts!